Award Data

The U.S. demand for chlorinated hydrocarbons exceeds 15 million tons annually. The production of these chemicals requires chlorine (Cl2) and produces HCl as an unavoidable by-product. Stringent environmental regulations limit the shipment of hazardous wastes like HCl, and the disposal of HCl by neutralization is costly. A consortium of 15 companies is developing an in-process recycling system t ...

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Drinking water filtration plants nationwide are failing to adequately reduce the public health risk due to exposure to sometimes lethal Cryptosporidium and other microbial particle levels. New regulations also will require reduction of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to minimize the risk from potentially carcinogenic reaction by-products resulting from disinfection. Particle and DBP precursors ar ...

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The photographic industry consumes about 70 million troy ounces of silver annually. The technology used to recover the silver from concentrated solution is more than 40 years old. However, investigators project that, based on industry experience, as much as 20% of this silver is lost in the wash water and goes unrecovered. The toxicity of silver in the effluent is a growing concern in the United ...

In order for plastics recycling to be a viable alternative in the long term, the recycled resins must be competitive with virgin resins both in terms of economics and purity. Current processing technologies utilize either hand sorting or automated sorting on the bottle level. However, there are many sources of contamination other than whole bottles, which will remain in the stream using whole bot ...

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This Phase I project will test the feasibility of converting paper mill sludge or filter-cake (FC), which is typically landfilled or incinerated and is a major environmental concern, into pelletized, composite sorbent of activated carbon and highly porous clay. There are currently more than 500 paper mills in the United States, each generating from 10 to more than 100 dry-tons of FC each day. Th ...

Zebra mussels cause an estimated $5 billion in economic damages annually. They clog water intake pipes, damage water supplies, threaten native fish and aquatic species, and promote the mobilization of toxic materials into the food chain. Chlorination is presently the most common treatment for zebra mussels. However, chlorine causes many serious environmental risks, thus necessitating the develo ...

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